No-Fly Rules Tightened

On Wednesday May 5, 2010 the government tightened their no-fly rules due to the suspicions having to do with the failed car bombing in Times Square last week. There are still questions as to how a Pakistani-American man was allowed to board a plane after being linked to the bomb attempt. An administration official said that airlines must now check the roster of passengers prohibited from boarding aircraft within two hours of being notified by the government that a new name has been added to the list on an expedited basis. Previously under the old rules, airlines had to re-check the list within 24 hours. That was enough of a gap to allow a suspect of the Times Square attack to proceed unstopped through airport security and board a plane going to Dubai. The suspect, Faisal Shazad, was arrested before the plane took flight. Though Mr. Shahzad was stopped before he could fly away, there were at least two significant lapses in the security response of the government and the airline that allowed him to come close to making his escape, officials of the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies said on Tuesday.